The Avengers
3.21: Mandrake
Bill Bain directs
a Roger Marshall teleplay for his second funereally-themed episode of the
season, and if the title conjures anticipation of occult occurrences along the
lines of Warlock, Mandrake’s probably a bit of a
disappointment on that level. What it does well is set up the soon-to-be-familiar
device found later, of dastardly goings-on in an innocuous rural setting.
Likewise, it shows off a plan from the villains that is, actually, quite smart
in terms of avoiding being fingered for the crime, if less so in expecting
their ruse to get very far, cumulatively.
Since the
bounders are packing all their London-based murder victims (the deed arranged
with family members) off to the small Cornish ghost village of Tinby, it’s only
a surprise that the ever-burgeoning graveyard (thanks to a reliably dotty
vicar) hasn’t been rumbled prior to Steed and Mrs Gale getting involved. But
the idea of poisoning the victims and then interring them in arsenic-rich soil,
so voiding all evidence of foul play in only a couple of months, is rather
good.
Also rather
good is the cast, including John Le Mesurier (his first of two appearances in
the series) and Philip Locke (his second of three, also familiar from the likes
of Four to Doomsday, Codename: Icarus, The Box of Delights and Jeeves
and Wooster) as schemers Dr Macombie and Hopkins respectively, Madge Ryan
as their next client, Mrs Turner, George Benson as the daffy Rev Whyper, and
Annette Andre (The Prisoner: It’s Your Funeral) as the girl in the
cracker shop Steed chats up. Oh, and Jackie Pallo as a cockney gravedigger
who’s very willing to switch sides for £100 (a repeat of Death of a Batman there).
This one’s
diverting, well-acted and could slot relatively seamlessly into the following
season, but what it lacks is the kind of eccentric humour that will become part
and parcel; it’s more the scenario that is heightened, such that scenes where
Cathy goes to see Macombie with a hockey stick injury are a bit on the “been
there, done that” side, every week.
There’s a nicely
hard-edged bit where Steed threatens a recent client (Robert Morris, Blake’s 7’s Traitor) with his umbrella, though, and the part two cliffhanger
suggests the daffy vicar may not be so daffy after all (the pointed gun proves to
be a water pistol, and he is frightfully concerned that the Congo children he
is helping may be educated with blood money; I’m sure Cathy knows all about
their plight first-hand, so can probably advise). Amiable, but just short of
being a season frontrunner.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.